Rail City Rumble: A Snake Eyes Gaming Warhammer 40,000 Tournament

Snake Eyes Gaming is proud to announce the 1st Annual Rail City Rumble!

For the last four years Snake eyes Gaming ran the Steel City showdown in Pittsburgh, the largest Warhammer 40,000 tournament in Western Pennsylvania. This year marks an embarkation upon a new adventure - the Rail City Rumble! Come and test your mettle against others - only one will earn the right to hoist the Sword of Victory.

There is no time for peace.  No respite.  No forgiveness.  There is only WAR.

Where:                  Snake Eyes Gaming

                                201 Cayuga Ave.

                               Altoona, PA 16602

When:                  Saturday, May 30^th

                              12:00 PM – Registration
                              12:30  PM – First Round Begins
                              Army lists will be collected during registration.

 What:                  3 round, 2000 point Warhammer 40,000 tournament

                              Participants will be given 2 hours and 15 minutes for each round. Additional time 
                                   will be provided for set-up during the first round.
                              There is NO painting requirement.  Unpainted models will NOT hinder
                                   your ability to win Best Sportsman or Best General prizes.
                              NO proxies although conversions are accepted (and encouraged!).  All models must
                                          be WYSIWYG.

 Cost:                    $15 for each participant.  Preregistration is not required.
                              The entry fee includes a lunch of Subway/Pizza that will be served between          
                                        Rounds 2 & 3.

                              Food will be available for non-participants for the cost of $5 per person.

Awards:             Best Overall

                             Best Sportsman
                      Best General
                             Best Painted
                             Snake Eyes Award
                            

Rules               Limit of 2 detachments and one Data Slate - total of 3 detachments.
                    Warlord from primary detachment.
                    Players can self ally.
                     Only one Lord of War for entire army, Lords of War can be from secondary
                                   detachment and may be up to 30% of entire army cost - 600 pts.

                      You must have the official rules that detail the unit(s) that you are using.

Night of the Living Card Games 2 (2/21/2015)

It's been a little while. A lot of cool things have happened around Snake eyes Gaming in the last month: Fate Reforged Prerelease, Magic PTQ, Knight Models Tournament, and tons of new exciting products!

I wanted to spend a little time today talking about the upcoming Living Card Game Day at Snake Eyes Gaming. Some of you may remember the last Living Card Game Day that we held back in October. For that event we ran demonstrations of a handful of our favorite Living Card Games. Since that time, we have had a Doomtown Tournament and a group of new players pick up Lord of the Rings. For this Living Card Game Day (which will be held on Saturday, February 21, 2015)  we are going to put the spotlight on two games: Doomtown and Call of Cthulu.

Doomtown is set in the Weird West. There are mad scientists, evil sorcerers, undead, holy-men wielding the power of the divine, outlaws, and of course lawmen. You take the role of the Sheriff Dave Montreal and the Law Dogs; the Morgan Cattle Company and their secret experiments conducted by mad scientists; the unseemly circus that just came to town and set up their tents near the old Whateley manor house, or the outlaw Sloane and her gang. Whoever you choose, your goal is to wrestle control of Gomorra away from your competitors.

Each store is permitted to hold two Deputy Events per year. Next Saturday (February 21, 2015) at 2pm will be the Deputy Event. Bring a legal Doomtown Reloaded deck (constructed following the deck building rules out of cards from the Base Set; New Town, New Rules; and Double Dealin') and fight for control of Gomorra. Only one player cane leave with the tin badge proclaiming them as Deputy.
 

Join us in exploring the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft with the Call of Cthulhu LCG Necronomicon draft.  Take the side of humanity battling against the outer gods, and elder ones.  Or take the side of they who should not be named, in the new draft format for the Living Card Game.

We will be teaching basics of the living card game as well as holding a draft tournament.  The Call of Cthulu draft will start next Saturday (February 21, 2015) at 6pm. The draft is played with each player using a draft starter and a draft pack.  You will have the draft starter as the core of your deck to use, & draft from the draft pack, like other card games, choosing a card and passing to the next player, using the drafted cards to then build a 40 card deck.

 

Winter Project Status Update

I did the same thing that I always do.

My Lizardmen army project started off with the same ideal that I always begin with: only assemble and paint one unit at a time. My theory is that if I do an army in manageable chunks like that I will not be overwhelmed by a tide of gray plastic. This time I made it all of the way through two units: 1 Kroxigor and 3 Jungle Swarms. Then the desire to get the models on the table and play a couple of games got the better of me.

As you can see from the picture below I now have around 1,250 points assembled, enough to play small games. Hopefully this will tide me over while I work on basing and painting my Core choices. The Temple Guard in the background were a Christmas gift (thanks Matt!) and they will be the next unit that I work on. Once I get some of the stuff currently assembled finished of course.

Next time I'll have some painted models to show off and maybe even a comment or two about how some of the units are performing on the table top. Happy New Years!

Happy Holidays from Snake Eyes Gaming

Snake Eyes Gaming wishes everyone in our gaming community and all of their families a happy holiday season. We hope that you all have a warm, safe, and fun holiday filled with plenty of games and cheer.

Doomtown Game Day: New Town, New Rules OP Kit

This upcoming Saturday is Snake Eyes Gaming's first Doomtown Game Day!

Snake Eyes Gaming will be running the first Organized Play (OP) kit for the expandable card game Doomtown Reloaded on Saturday, December 20th at 5:00 pm. Bring a legal Doomtown Reloaded deck (constructed following the deck building rules out of cards from the Base Set and/or New Town, New Rules) and fight for control of Gomorra. Greenhorns and Experienced Gunslingers alike are welcome!

Where:                  Snake Eyes Gaming
                                201 Cayuga Ave., Suite 10
                                1130 Perry Hwy
                                Altoona, PA 16602
                                snakeeyesgamingllc@gmail.com

When:                  Saturday, December 20th 5:00 PM

 What:                  Doomtown Reload Organize Play (OP) Kit #1.

 Cost:                    $6 for each participant

Awards:                1st Place: Xiong "Wendy" Cheng Artwork Playmat
                               2nd Place: Fourth Ring Deck Box (metal)
                               3rd Place: Fourth Ring Deck Box (metal)
                               Participation Prize: Alternate Artwork Pistol Whip (featuring Alice Stowe)
                               Additional Prizes: Alternate Artwork Pony Express (the old artwork from Deadlands)

As we said above, Greenhorns and Experienced Gunslingers alike are welcome. In fact, there will be an opportunity to get a demo or a couple of practice games in beforehand if you arrive prior to 4 PM.

Hope to see you all at High Noon in the Town Square!

Game Review: Lord of the Rings the Card Game

The Lord of the Rings Card game is a cooperative Living Card Game in which players work together to complete a harrowing Quest. Living Card Games (sometimes alternatively called Expandable Card Games) are card games that are not collectible. Rather than coming in randomized booster packs with different rarity levels of cards, sets are released that contain fixed cards. In this manner players can purchase expansions that contain the cards that they are interested in using. Most Living Card Games have Core sets that contain a good mixture of cards that will allow a player to make multiple decks and begin playing. Expansions are released every 1-2 months (depending on the particular game) and contain a full play set of all the cards in that expansion. The cooperative play in Lord of the Rings allows players to work in concert to complete the Quest that they have been assigned. The game can be played by 1-4 players and scales in difficulty as more players are added.

Each player controls three Heroes which represent the

adventurers striving to complete the Quest. Heroes start the game in play and will help define the type of cards that the player will use in their Player Deck. In addition to the ability to attack, defend, and make progress towards completing the Quest – each Hero also possesses abilities and/or traits that represent the way in which that Hero acts. Powerful Heroes are more Threatening to the Enemy than less powerful Heroes which means that they will have less time to complete their mission before the Enemy reacts to their presence. Threat acts like a game clock that determines how much time a player has to finish the Quest. The following heroes are among those that come in the Core set: Aragon, Legolas, Gimli, Eowyn, Theodred, Denethor, and Glorfindel. Each new expansion contains at least one additional Hero including Elrond, Frodo, Boromir, Galadriel, and Prince Imrahil.

Players use cards from their Player Deck to arm themselves for the battles ahead in the Quest. Player Decks are made up of Allies, Events, and Attachments. Allies are companions that you recruit to assist you in your endeavors. Allies are able to help you fight, defend, and make progress towards completing the Quest. Guard of the Citadel, Longbeard Orc Slayer, Gondorian Spearman, Miner of the Iron Hills, Faramir, Beorn, and Gandalf are some of the Allies included in the Core set. Some Allies also have Hero versions (although only one version of each unique character can be in play at any given time). Events are the actions that Heroes and Allies take during the Quest – such as Feint, Sneak Attack, Radagast’s Cunning, Gandalf’s Search, and Beorn’s Hospitality. Attachments are the Artifacts, Weapons, and Titles that your Heroes acquire during the game. The following Attachments are among those included in the Core set: Horn of Gondor, Blade of Gondolin, The Favor of the Lady, and Dwarven Axe. Each expansion contains additional Allies, Events, and Attachments such as Radagast, Gildor Inglorion, Arwen Undomiel, Gwaihir, Sword that was Broken, Vilya and Nenya (Elrond’s and Galadriel’s Rings of Power respectively), Black Arrow, and many more.

The Quest deck contains the Locations, Enemies,

and Treacheries that the players must overcome to complete the Quest. Locations are places that must be explored during the Heroes journey. The geography of Middle Earth is represented in the Core set by Location cards like Mountains of Mirkwood, Necromancer’s Pass, Enchanted Stream, and Old Forest Road. Enemies are the monsters and villains that must be fought during the Quest. Enemies include generic monsters such as Wolf Rider, Forest Spider, and Hill Troll; as well as specific villains like Chieftan Ufthak and the Nazgul of Dol Guldor. Treacheries represent the attacks and attention of the Enemy through cards like Caught in the Web, The Necromancer’s Web, and Pursued by Shadow. The Quest itself is made up of the Quest Cards that define which Locations, Enemies, and Treacheries the Heroes could face as well as the conditions necessary for the players to move through and hopefully complete their mission. Each expansion contains additional Quests, Locations, Enemies, and Treacheries for the players to face.

If you would like to try a demo of the Lord of the Card Game let us know and we can arrange one for you. Otherwise, keep your eyes on this spot for upcoming Lord of the Rings Card Game events. There are some good resources available if you are interested in finding out more about the Lord of the Rings Card Game on your own: Board Game Geek and the Hall of Beorn.

New Project with an Old Plan

Winter is coming (the pun is partially intended), and as such it is a great time to start a new project. Each year I seem to get involved in a new hobby project to carry me through the dark depths of winter. I find that having something creative to spend the cold evening where I can’t be outside gives me something to look forward to. It should be noted that I do not generally make a conscious decision to go out and start something new because it’s getting cold.  It just so happens that about this time of year I find a project to get interested in and work on it most of the winter. In the past, I’ve worked on White Scars, Tau, and DeadZone as my winter project.

Like most years, I wasn’t even thinking about a new project. And then a shadow of an idea started to grow in my mind causing me to look at models and think about paint schemes. Eventually I realized I was on to something and purchased enough to get me started.

It all started during the End Times. I have not played Warhammer Fantasy more than a handful of times since 6th edition. As whispers of the End Times started to surface though I couldn’t ignore them. Named Special Characters with models dead? Nagash returned? An apocalyptic breath of air was blown into the Warhammer Fantasy universe and it made me want to participate. Now that I had the urge to begin working on a Fantasy army I had to decide on which force I would begin working, there are a lot of cool models and a lot of cool rules so it was quite a decision.

In the end I came up with a simple solution, I’ve always liked the Lizardmen but never owned or painted any of their models. I ordered a couple of Skink Regiment, Saurus Regiment, and Carnosaur and got started working. I’m still working on setting out exactly what my goal is (i.e. am I shooting for 2,500 points or 2,000 points or what?) but I expect to have the first 1,000 points completed soon so you may see them coming soon to a table near you. A couple of small point value games will probably indicate on which units I will be spending the winter months.

What projects are all of you currently working on? Please feel free to share them below.

Weekend in Review

Thanks for another great weekend of gaming! We would like to offer a sincere thank you to Hershel for his assistance on Friday night. We had a great, busy evening (and late night) full of Friday Night Magic and the release of the new Commander decks featuring Planeswalker commanders for the first time. Hershel's assistance was instrumental in making Friday night happen.

Saturday was the Grand Prix Trial for Baltimore, 17 participants attended and dueled throughout the afternoon. When the dust cleared Luke was the victor, congratulations and good luck! There was plenty to do for all participants because those that did not finish in the Top 8 were able to Draft afterwards.

This past weekend also saw more fierce battles in the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K escalation leagues. Saturday night also marked the banishment of Glotkin by a night goblin shaman wielding the Skull Wand of Kaloth. The world has certainly not seen the last of Glotkin, the brothers will undoubtedly make their way back from the Chaos Wastes to once again threaten the Old World.

Interest in Living Card Games has continued to grow. Three intrepid players command the heroes of Middle Earth as they battled across the Anduin to the verge of Lorien and then plumbed the depths of Dol Goldur. Two players braved the unknowable and avoided going mad from the revelations they uncovered as they competed to solve mysteries in Call of Cthulu. The struggle for the future of the doomtown was fought in the dusty and bloody Town Square of Gomorra twice by six different players, with the Sloane Gang shooting their way to victory and later the Fourth Ring biding their time as the Law Dogs and Morgan Cattle Company waged a battle for supremacy against the Sloane Gang that cost both sides equally.

The Sunday HeroClix event was Marvel vs. DC. Sixteen players showed up for this cross over spectacular in which TJ emerged victorious and Paul distinguished himself with the Fellowship award.

Election Day

Happy Election Day!

We at Snake Eyes Gaming just wanted to remind everyone to go out and cast your votes. If you're not sure where your polling place is then you can find out that information at the following location: https://www.pavoterservices.state.pa.us/Pages/PollingPlaceInfo.aspx.

Weekend Recap

Happy Wednesday everyone! Not only did we have great Autumn weather last weekend but there were also a couple of cool events at Snake Eyes Gaming to recap.

Living Card Games are a relatively new edition to Snake Eyes Gaming and as such we wanted to make a little time to highlight some of the games that we're most excited about. With the help of the people that volunteered to demonstrate games, we successfully ran demos of the following living card games: Doomtown Reloaded, Warhammer 40,000 Conquest, Lord of the Rings, Call of Cthulu, and Star Wars. In addition to the people that showed up and participated in Living Card Game Day we had others express interest in learning to play several of the games. Snake Eyes Gaming will schedule another living card game day in the future but in the meantime we plan on holding game days and events for a few of the games that we demonstrated.

Snake Eyes Gaming also hosted a Grand Prix Trial on Saturday. The Legacy formatted event brought 15 participants who dueled for a spot in New Jersey on November 16 & 17. Congratulations and good luck to the winner who traveled all the way from Pittsburgh to participate in our Grand Prix Trial. In addition, we would like to give a special thanks to Bruce who donated his time to run the Magic tournament.

Thank you to all of the people that assisted with and participated in the events that we ran last weekend. There will be plenty going on this coming weekend as well with the start of Round 2 of the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Escalation League, a special Halloween themed booster draft for Friday Night Magic (Innistrad/ Innistrad/ Avacyn Restored), and more!